Lions
Watching this lioness feeding on an kudu that she and her sister had recently killed in the Chyulu Hills National Park in Kenya, I was struck by a sense of her power. Considered to be both an apex and a keystone predator, lions are the dominant of the three species of big cats in Africa, the other two being the leopard and the cheetah. I was fortunate to watch and photograph this lioness, her sister and their two young cubs over two days as they fed in the grasslands where they hunted. The light at the end of the day, just as the sun was setting, turned the grass in a sea of gold that matched the colour of these lions.
The scars on her sister’s face hinted at the life they had lived. Despite being the dominant hunter, their lives are far from easy. Hunting large animals, even for a pride of these large powerful animals, carries risk of injury. Conflict between lions, both between rival prides and within the same pride, is a source of injury and fatality amongst lions.
Photographing the interrelation between predator and prey should always be undertaken sensitively. Photographing predators hunting and/or feeding is about documenting the life cycles of these animals and should never be a glorification of the hunt and/or the kill. The images can be raw and at times uncomfortable, but they show a part of the natural world that in many ways we humans, with our supermarkets and ready made meals, have become distanced from.
A century ago there were some 200,000 wild lions in Africa. Today, African lions are classified by the IUCN as vulnerable with may be as few as 20,000 left in the wild. Lions are now absent from 90% of their historic range in Africa. Populations of African lions are declining in West, Central and East Africa. Only in Southern Africa are their populations stable or possibly increasing.
Despite their best efforts, only about twenty percent of a lionesses cubs will make it to their second birthday. Female cubs, who stay with the pride they are born in, have a better chance of survival than male cubs who are forced out of their pride as they reach adulthood.
Whilst the fate of these two young lions is far from certain, these mothers are clearly doing all they can to ensure that they survive in their uncertain and hostile world.
Images made with the Nikon Z9 and 400mm f/2.8 TC VR S, handheld from a safari vehicle.
